Not Necessarily Interesting News

Imagine the most amazing steam bath you’ve ever taken. Now make the steam have a nearly overwhelming scent of maple syrup. That’s what we did this morning.

We went back to Windswept Maples Farm this morning to see the guys boiling sap. As we walked up they were finishing feeding the cows and had just started the boilers. The sap starts out clear and after 45-60 minutes of boiling they can start bottling the syrup. They showed us how they tell what grade syrup they are producing. I was surprised to learn they don’t have a lot of control over what grade syrup they will get when they’re done. Depending on conditions they can get anything from a ‘Grade A Light’ to a dark ‘Grade B’. I personally prefer the darker syrups as they have a bit stronger taste. We ended up buying over a gallon of fresh syrup in a few different grades. We also got maple candy and maple cream too. After an hour of talking about maple syrup and farming we hit the road.

On our way south we stopped by the Canterbury Shaker Village. A historical Shaker village north of Concord. It is closed this time of year so we could only look from the road. It was still quite beautiful and interesting.

We were supposed to make it to a meeting of the Free Staters in Manchester. It’s a group of libertarians dedicated to restoring freedom to the people of New Hampshire. It was nice to meet several people from New Hampshire and gain contacts in the state. They are very passionate about changing New Hampshire for the better. After a couple hours we decided to head south to Boston.

Boston is only about an hour south of Manchester so we arrived in Boston around 3:30. We figured it’d be a little quiet and we could look around a bit before finding a place to stay. As we pulled out of the tunnel onto the surface streets we were met by a solid wall of cars and people. After driving around for 10 minutes trying to get oriented I pulled back onto the freeway and left Boston. Too many people. Too many cars. Just too much.

We found a place to stay about 5 miles north of Boston tonite and will head back in early tomorrow, Easter Sunday, when we hope it’ll be less hectic.

Today we headed north from North Conway. Way north. A lot farther north in the state than we originally planned but we are glad we did it.

The hotel we stayed at last night gave us free passes to go tubing at a place at the base of Mt. Washington. Mt. Washington is famous for recording the highest wind speed anywhere on the planet. It’s also one of the coldest spots around. We were nowhere near the summit but it sure was cold as we tubed down the hills in a light snow. We had the slopes to ourselves for most of the morning which was very nice. Dakota had a blast in his first ‘real’ snow.

We looped around the north side of Mt Washington and headed south. We never got to see the peak of the mountain as it was socked in by clouds and snow. From our vantage point though it was rather intimidating.

We wound our way through many small towns on our way south and on a back road east of concord we happened upon a small maple farm right at dusk. We didn’t think they’d be open or around but we stopped anyways just in case.

We walked towards the sugaring shack and a man walked out of the barn from across the way. Turned out he was the owner and he was very nice. The name of the place was Windswept Maples Farm. He was in the process off bottling syrup and showed us around. He took us out to a few trees he had tapped and showed how they tapped them. The sap is clear and nearly the consitency of water. It is also nearly tasteless as it drips from the tree. We went inside and he showed us the syrup he was bottling and let us have a taste. He stuck a cup under the flow he was bottling and gave the sample to us. It comes out of the tap at 180 degrees. It was liquid heaven. He could have handed me a pint of the stuff and I would have drank it right there. Forget hot chocolate for a cold day, give me hot, pure, fresh maple syrup. He told us he’d be sugaring(boiling down sap) tomorrow and we should come by to see that. We told him he had a deal and went on our way.

For dinner we found a seafood place and I got Shannon her first ever taste of lobster. I didn’t make her do the whole shell cracking thing though. She got Lobster Newburg and enjoyed it immensly.

Tomorrow morning we’ll head out to watch Larry do some sugaring.

I’ve uploaded all of our pictures so far but they are uncommented/rotated/sorted and such. Feel free to look at them in their raw unedited state. I’ll get to commenting and such when we get home.

We were woken up this morning by our son. He woke up at 6:30 and saw that it was snowing. Not hard, but not light either. Just a steady snow. He ‘had’ to go out right now to see it. I got dressed with him and let him play in the parking lot for a few minutes. We hunted down breakfast and headed out to explore Portsmouth in the light.

We found a park where Dakota could run around, throw snowballs, and make snow angels. We let him have his fun then drove through the downtown section of town. Portsmouth is exactly what you think of when you think of a New Enlgand fishing village. The houses are small but well kept and some even hang out over the water on piers. There are lobster traps everywhere near the docks.

We ended up across the bay at New Castle. As you drive in to town there’s a sign that says: ‘Settled 1623 – Incorporated 1693’. There are some buildings in town over 300 years old. Some of the oldest buildings in the country.

We ended up at Fort Constitution. This fort was captured from the British months before the battles of Concord and Lexington and was the site of the first real hostilities between the colonists and the British. Today it’s a Coast Guard base thought most of the original fort still stands. It was bitterly cold here today. When we were there it was snowing and quite windy. My wife said she thinks it’s the coldest she’s ever been. Afterwards we headed back to Portsmouth.

We totally fell in love with Portsmouth but after stopping in and talking to a realtor decided there’s no way in hell we’d ever be able to afford to live there on one income.

Next we travelled across the drawbridge into Kittery, ME. We went across more to say we visited Maine than anything else. We did end up in Point Kittery where we got a wonderful seafood lunch at a little place overlooking the harbor and lobster traps. It finally stopped snowing while we ate.

We decided to head north after this. Instead of taking the much faster turnpike we took backroads and went thourhg all the small towns taking pictures along the way. We pulled in to a park outside Dover to take some pictures of a pretty frozen pond. As I pulled in to the lot I noticed there were a few cars there. I started to get out to take pics when I noticed most of the cars were backed in to their spots and had a single male occupant. All of them staring at me. Hmmmm. Looks like I found the cruising spot in town. Time to leave. There are somethings I don’t want to explain to my 8 year old.

We stopped in Rochester and talked to a Realtor. The prices are much more reasonable now that we’re outside commute distance to Boston. Nice little town but nothing remarkable.

We made it all the way to North Conway. A bigger ski resort town. The place is pretty dead as ski season is winding down. It’ll probably get busier tomorrow as Easter weekend starts. The nice thing so far about traveling in the off season without reservations is that hotels really want your business. If they don’t knock off at least %20 or more of what they said at first was their ‘best’ price we move on. Tonite the guy asked if I was a AAA member. I told him I’ll say I am if it gets me a discount. He replied, ‘well I’ll say I saw a card’. He knocked another $20 off that price. An added bonus I didn’t know at the time was that guests here get free passes for a local ski slope for cross country skiing or tubing. We had planned to go tubing anyways and this looks to save us another $25. Sweet.

My wife says she had the breakfast of champions this morning. What you ask? Whiskey. Straight up.

You’ve got to understand, my wife hates flying. With a passion. If it wasn’t for the fact that we saved a good deal of money by flying to New Hampshire over driving she wouldn’t get on the airplane. I brought my trusty flask for her to nurse on and she took a few hits before take off. The flight itself was nothing to write home about. The almost negligible turbulence we hit on climbout out of Cleveland sent her through the roof. My son just looked across the aisle at me and giggled like it was a roller coaster.

As I said before, we are thinking of moving to New Hampshire. Today we started our trip. We found someone to housesit for us and hopped a plane today. We arrived in Manchester to a gray cold day. There is a snow storm approaching and you could feel it in the air. We had a bit of an issue with our rental car in that they didn’t have a reservation for us for today. They thought we were arriving tomorrow. The frazzled girl tried to pawn off a compact on me but there was no way I was going to be driving all over New England for a week in a teeny little Ford Focus. After a bit of fussing I got them to upgrade us from that to a full-sized SUV for about $5/day. The price difference is normally about $30/day. Now we’re cruising in a 4×4 Trailblazer which is even better than what we originally wanted.

We pulled out of the airport with no plans in mind. The road to Portsmouth looked good so we took it. We ended up getting off that road after a couple miles and took backroads through Southern New Hampshire. The terrain is beautiful. And expensive. As we found out by grabbing flyers from in front of houses that were for sale. Being under an hour from Boston makes this prime living territory for people who work down that way. We stopped for a bit in the town of Exeter. It was a cute little town with a bunch of shops to browse. You can tell it relies a lot on tourism, as do many towns around here.

Driving around we noticed that a lot of houses have their construction dates on placards out front. It’s still hard to get over seeing dates like 1823 and 1757 on buildings. Back home our house is 30 years old and it’s considered and ‘older’ house. Here, that’s new construction. 100 years old is just getting broken in. Of course, their houses are much smaller here too. 1,500 sq. ft. is huge in a lot of areas.

We made it in to Portsmouth after dark and found a hotel with wireless access. I wanted this so I could keep up with job applications I’ve placed up here.

They say it’s supposed to snow after midnight. The desk clerk says the weatherman is predicting ‘not much accumilation’ which means about 2-4 inches. My son can’t wait.

We picked up our son from Young Marine Boot Camp on Saturday. He is now officially a Private in the organization. Starting at next drill he’ll be able to order around recruits almost twice his age, though I’m sure he won’t. He said he had a good time even though it was hard work. He was able to easily pass all his physical fitness tests and his Marine history test. He learned how to blouse his pants, shine his shoes, and march in formation. You can see on his chest that he was awarded his first ribbon for completion of boot camp. He wants to wear it everywhere and it’s all we can do to make sure he doesn’t. He told us he only cried twice and that was from being made to do pushups because someone else in the squad screwed up.

We’re very proud of him.

We sent our son off to Young Marines Boot Camp today. Before you think we’re bad parents, he wanted to go. He’s been doing monthly drills with them for the past 6 months and their yearly ‘Boot Camp’ occurs every year on Spring Break. He left on Saturday and we pick him up at Camp Bulliss in San Antonio next Saturday. He was very nervous about the whole thing but once he got to the meeting spot to drive down he forgot completely about Mom and Dad. When they were told to double time it to their cars he hopped in with his ride before even saying good-bye. His mother doesn’t know what to do with him gone for a week and constantly worries about him. I had to explain to her that he’ll forget all about us while he’s there and that he’ll have a blast. Young Marines has been good for him and ever since he could really think about it he’s said he wants to be a Marine like his Grandfather and Great Grandfather. Young Marines is like a more regimented Boy Scouts than a real Marine training program. They are just kids after all.

Edit: Yeah, he’s swimming in his field jacket. It’s the smallest they issue. He is the youngest in the outfit and they don’t normally stock smaller sizes.

We are headed to New Hampshire later in the month to do some re-con work for our possible move. I decided to use Expedia to book our flight and rental car.

Big Mistake.

Oh yeah, it seemed like it’d be easy. No prob. Input dates we want to leave and return. Select flights. Select car. Done.

A few minutes later we get the confirmation email. WTF? It shows us leaving on Thursday and not Wednesday like we wanted. Ok, it was probably my fault so I called Expedia to fix it. After explaining what occured they said it’d be $100 per person to change the outbound flight date. You mean it costs $300 to change a number in a database? ‘Yes, sir. It does. What we can do is cancel the whole trip for $35 per person and then remake the reservations for the correct date’. ‘Um, ow. I don’t think so.’

I called up Continental who we’ll be flying with and explained the situation. The lady said I really need to talk to Expedia about it. She helpfully checked to make sure there was room on the earlier flight and said there was and ‘look at this. They are $40/person cheaper now.’ Ok, I figured I’d call Expedia, cancel it for $35/person and then book straight through Continental and wind up saving $15 overall.

I called back Expedia and said I’d just prefer to cancel the reservations I made just 30 minutes earlier. She said no prob and that I’d see the credit to my account in 2-3 billing cycles.

‘Hold the phone! You mean I won’t get my money back for 2-3 months?’ ‘Yes, sir.’

Uh, no. That’s not good for me as I stupidly used my debit card for the tickets and that is cash straight out of my account. I argued with these damn Indians(don’t even get me started on this subject) that I could hardly understand for about 45 minutes and got nowhere. I told them not to touch my reservation and called back Continental.

I got a very helpful lady and explained everything that happened up until then. She said normally there’s a $100/person change fee but since I’d made the reservation only an hour before and I’d gone through hell with Expedia she’d make the change at no charge. Not only did she make the change without charging me she even refunded the difference in price of $120.

I love Continental.

I hate Expedia.

I finally got to do an endurance test on the new battery I got for my iPod. I keep a charger at work and made sure it was topped off. At 5pm I disconnected it from power and started it playing. I set it to shuffle and locked the keys. I didn’t press a button throughout the test. It finally died at 1:30pm this afternoon. That’s a solid 20 1/2 hours of playtime from a single charge. Over twice as good as I ever got when I first got the iPod.

If you have an older iPod that has a battery that’s not holding a charge I have to recommend the 2100mah battery from Mac Sales

My iPod has been suffering from a sagging battery life. It was lasting only about 4 hours on a charge, down from the 10-12 I used to get out of it. I ordered a replacement battery this week. I went with the higher powered 2100mah battery from Mac Sales. I arrived in two days and I put it in last night.
The installation wasn’t quite as easy as they make out to be. The kit came with tools to open the case. My case wasn’t exactly like the one they had pictured so I faked it and pryed it open starting at the bottom instead of the top. After about 10 minutes of work I had the new battery in and the iPod powered up.
Sweet.
I put it on charge overnight and brought it to work today. I started it playing at about 8:30 this morning. Normally I plug it into the wall at work so I can have tunes all day. If I didn’t, by noon or so it’d be dead. Today after 5.5 hours so far it’s still showing a full battery. I’m going to let it play for the rest of the day and evening to see how long it’ll go. It’s nice to know I’ll be able to make long roadtrips without worrying about if the iPod will die and leave me without music.

Our local Dillards is having their huge spring sale starting today. We went there after work and piled up on clothes. I got something I’ve wanted for the longest time. A real leather bomber jacket. It is an Avirex A-2. Avirex supplies jackets to the Air Force and other military. It looks black in the picture but is really brown. It’s still shiny because it’s still got it’s protective shipping coating. That’ll wear off quickly and it’ll be a dull brown. List price originally was $350. We picked it up tonite for $49. Yes, that’s over 80% off. I also grabbed a $160 leather vest for $8.50, about 4 Nautica, Polo, and Quicksilver sweatshirts, and 1/2 dozen long sleeve shirts. I got clothing with a list price of over $900 for under $100. By far the jacket is my favorite though.